EMILYs List Statement on John Cranley’s Candidacy for Ohio Governor

For Immediate Release

August 10, 2021

EMILYs List Statement on John Cranley’s Candidacy for Ohio Governor

Today, Mayor John Cranley of Cincinnati announced his campaign for governor of Ohio. Jessica Mackler, vice president of federal and gubernatorial campaigns at EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, released the following statement:

“For most of his career, John Cranley has been vocal about his anti-abortion beliefs. Now that he recognizes the unpopularity of his views, Cranley is seeking to gloss over his prior anti-abortion statements with the hope that Ohio voters will forget about his past. We know the truth: John Cranley is as much a threat to abortion access and reproductive health care as Ohio’s Republican General Assembly. Ohioans deserve a governor who will always protect their reproductive freedoms, which is why EMILYs List is proud to stand with pro-choice champion Nan Whaley in the race for this critical governorship.”

Background

• A 2021 article highlights the difference between pro-choice champion Nan Whaley and John Cranley, who has been anti-choice for most of his career.
  • “They have not had to deal with the abortion issue as local government officials. But the governor has a big say over Ohio's abortion laws. Whaley is staunchly for abortion rights, whereas Cranley has been anti-abortion for most of his political career.  
  • In 2017, however, Cranley said he began to shift his views on the issue. The change of heart could lead to questions in a primary campaign about whether it's genuine.”
• Despite the infrequency of abortion issues during his tenure as a local official, John Cranley has repeatedly opposed pro-choice policies.
• In 2003, John Cranley supported a resolution that backed U.S. Rep. Steve Chabot’s bid to ban abortion later in pregnancy.
• John Cranley also voted twice to require city health insurance plans to exclude abortion coverage.
• John Cranley also has a history of donating to other anti-choice candidates.

EMILYs List, the nation’s largest resource for women in politics, has raised over $700 million to elect Democratic pro-choice women candidates. With a grassroots community of over five million members, EMILY's List helps Democratic women win competitive campaigns – across the country and up and down the ballot – by recruiting and training candidates, supporting and helping build strong campaigns, researching the issues that impact women and families, running nearly $50 million in independent expenditures in the last cycle alone, and turning out women voters and voters of color to the polls. Since our founding in 1985, we have helped elect the country's first woman as vice president, 158 women to the House, 26 to the Senate, 16 governors, and more than 1,300 women to state and local office. More than 40 percent of the candidates EMILYs List has helped elect to Congress have been women of color. After the 2016 election, more than 60,000 women reached out to EMILY's List about running for office laying the groundwork for the next decade of candidates for local, state, and national offices. In our effort to elect more women in offices across the country, we have created our Run to Win program, expanded our training program, including a Training Center online, and trained thousands of women.